Helping out at the mums group on Thursday mornings has given me an interesting insight into how toddlers interact. You can take a group of children who on their own are lovely and, by placing them in the context toy sharing, unleash utter chaos.
Last week there was a dispute over spoons. Megan owns a plastic tea set in which there are four cups, four spoons, four saucers, a sugar bowl and milk jug. Each of the duplicate items are identical. Nevertheless this small group of toddlers was somehow drawn to one of the four spoons over and above all others. It seems that the fact that someone else wants something gives it value beyond all identical somethings. Could this be one of the principles that we've built an entire economic model on?